Starmer’s most radical prisons shake-up is still to come

When Keir Starmer gave his first Downing Street press conference last weekend, he warned that ‘tough decisions’ were coming shortly. The first of these is expected later today. The new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to announce plans to ease prison overcrowding in England and Wales. That plan is expected to involve prisoners being released early, including some convicted of violent offences. The proposal is that some inmates on fixed sentences will be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentences, rather than the usual 50 per cent. However, there will be some exemptions – with certain crimes meaning that inmates are not eligible for early release.

The backdrop to this is the number of prison places currently available: around 700. The view in Whitehall is that if this goes down to 300 spare places, jails can no longer accept arrivals from courts and the whole system starts to break down.